The addition in trans of the pufQ gene to a strain of Rhodobacter capsulatus from which the entire puf operon had been deleted, increased its ability to synthesize coproporphyrinogen from both delta-aminolevulinic acid and porphobilinogen. Studies at the enzyme level indicated that the conversion of porphobilinogen to uroporphyrinogen III had about a 2-fold higher level of activity in the anaerobically-grown pufQ-containing strain. This increase in activity over the puf-deletion strain appeared to occur during transitions from aerobic to semiaerobic growth conditions. These results indicated that the PufQ protein may exert a stimulatory effect quite early in the pathway of bacteriochlorophyll biosynthesis.